A new joint industry committee representing advertising sales groups and major programmers aims to challenge Nielsen Holdings PLC's grip on the U.S. TV ad measurement business.
Advanced advertising media consortium OpenAP LLC and the Video Advertising Bureau are partnering with NBCUniversal Media LLC, Paramount Global, Warner Bros. Discovery Inc., Fox Corp. and TelevisaUnivision Inc. to create a measurement certification process that would help facilitate the adoption of new cross-platform measurement services ahead of the 2024 upfront ad sales season. The VAB is a trade organization representing the advertising sales departments of TV networks and distributors.
During the upfront, content providers look to sell linear and digital schedules to media agencies and their clients ahead of the upcoming TV season.
Longtime TV measurement leader Nielsen came under fire for undercounting audiences during the pandemic. Since then, media companies have increasingly begun to look for alternative measurement services to help inform their decisions and transact deals.
The new joint industry committee said it will have an announcement on March 1 regarding the collective efforts of its members in developing measurement certification standards. The group also plans to host an April 25 event with updates on the multicurrency future and upfront readiness of its measurement partners.
"The formation of this JIC is a major accelerant in realizing the level of measurement excellence and currency choice that US marketers are looking for in a thoroughly modernized arena for building brands and growing sales revenue," said VAB President and CEO Sean Cunningham in a statement.
The group said it also hopes to attract other major programmers, such as Walt Disney Co., Netflix Inc. and Amazon.com Inc.
The partners said they will fund several data initiatives. In addition to establishing an alternative measurement certification process, they plan to create a programmer data set to enable third-party measurement vendors by "harmonizing" streaming viewership data delivered by the OpenAP infrastructure. They intend to engage a third-party audit firm to verify the accuracy of the streaming viewership data.
NBCUniversal has been the most vocal among the media conglomerates about testing and conducting business with Nielsen rivals, though Paramount Global also has worked with a number of companies to steer campaigns.
Last week, Warner Bros. Discovery Inc. reached an agreement under which VideoAmp Inc. will measure cross-screen campaigns across the content provider's portfolio of linear and digital properties. VideoAmp's measurement suite will be deployed when Warner Bros. Discovery looks to write business during the advertising upfronts ahead of the 2023-24 TV season.
Despite content providers and media agencies working with alternate measurement companies, Nielsen data remained the currency under which most upfront deals were conducted ahead of the 2022-23 TV season.
Meanwhile, Nielsen plans to introduce its new ad measurement product, Nielsen One Ads, to the U.S. on Jan. 11. It will supply advertisers, brands and publishers with data about reach and frequency, deduplicated across linear and connected TV, desktop and mobile outlets. The company also will make Nielsen One Content Alpha — which provides cross-platform, deduplicated and syndicated content metrics across devices — available this year.
Nielsen One is set to become the company's primary digital and TV measurement system in 2024.
In response to the formation of the new joint industry committee, Nielsen said in a statement that the company appreciates "working with all the industry bodies vested in the best way to measure the changing audience."